Nothing sinister occurred to cause such a result, though – NASA
crashed the vending-machine-sized probe on purpose following what
it dubbed a successful mission.

In a statement released on Friday, the space agency said its
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) probe was
traveling at extremely high speeds when it smashed into a
mountain or carter on the moon. As a result, flight controllers
believe the spacecraft likely vaporized on impact, and that
little, if anything, remains.

"At the time of impact, LADEE was traveling at a speed of
3,600 miles per hour – about three times the speed of a
high-powered rifle bullet," said NASA project scientist Rick
Elphic. "There’s nothing gentle about impact at these speeds
– it’s just a question of whether LADEE made a localized
craterlet on a hillside or scattered debris across a flat area.
It will be interesting to see what kind of feature LADEE has
created."

Launched in September 2013, the $280 million explorer arrived in
lunar orbit in October and began collecting atmospheric data in
November. In addition to analyzing the moon’s atmosphere, LADEE
was also home to a new type of communication system, one that
uses lasers to transmit data instead of radio waves. With this
technology, NASA was able to download information at a
record-breaking 622 megabits-per-second.

The probe was expected to stay in service for 100 days before
being crashed into the moon’s surface, but it ended up surviving
even longer.

"Having flown through the eclipse and survived, the team is
actually feeling very good," NASA project manager Butler
Hine told the Associated Press.

With no more fuel left to keep itself in orbit, NASA had lowered
the probe significantly by Thursday evening, when it was just 300
feet above the moon’s surface. Scientists estimate it’ll take a
coup,e of days to pinpoint the exact sight of the crash. The
agency may opt to take photos of the scene with its Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter.

According to the New York Times, the only thing LADEE did not
determine was why, before sunrise, astronomers saw glowing light
on the lunar horizon. Since the moon’s atmosphere isn’t dense
enough to scatter light, scientists speculated it might be caused
by dust kicked up by electrostatic forces. LADEE, however, did
not witness enough dust to account for such a glow, leaving the
40-year-old mystery unsolved.

Despite this, NASA’s Joan Salute said the probe still
accomplished many things.

"LADEE was a mission of firsts, achieving yet another first
by successfully flying more than 100 orbits at extremely low
altitudes," Salute said in a statement. “Although a
risky decision, we're already seeing evidence that the risk was
worth taking.”